Eisenhower Sends Federal Troops

To ensure that the Little Rock Nine could complete a full day
of classes, President Eisenhower sent the 101st Airborne Division
into Little Rock. The 101st patrolled outside the school and
escorted the black students into the school. In addition, the
black students were assigned a personal guard from the 101st who
followed them around the school. Still, they were subjects of
unspeakable hatred. White students yelled insults in the halls
and during class. They beat up the black students, particularly
the boys. They walked on the heels of the blacks until they bled.
They destroyed the black students' lockers and threw flaming
paper wads at them in the bathrooms. They threw lighted sticks
of dynamite at Melba Pattillo, stabbed her, and sprayed
acid in her eyes. The acid was so strong that had her 101st guard
not splashed water on her face immediately, she would have been
blind for the rest of her life.

Gradually, the 101st Airborne left Central High and the black
students were left to fend for themselves. By the time Christmas
rolled around, they were certainly ready for a vacation. Unfortunately,
vacation did not come soon enough for Minnijean Brown, who dumped her lunch
tray over the heads of two boys who had been taunting her on December 17th.
Even though the boys said that they "didn't blame her for getting mad" after
all the insults she had endured over the course of the year, Minnijean was
suspended for six days.
[10]
She was "[r]einstated on
probation [on] January 13, 1958, with the agreement that she would not
retaliate, verbally or physically, to any harassment but would leave the
matter to the school authorities to handle."
[11]
But she was expelled in February after she called a girl who was provoking
her "white trash." The whites in the school were jubilant, making up cards
that said, "One down...eight to go!"

It was not to be. The other eight all finished the school year. In
May, despite numerous protests and under the watchful eye of 125 federalized
Arkansas National Guardsmen, Ernest Green became the first black
graduate of Central High, the sole minority student in his 602-member
class.
[12]